2026

May 18 (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate voted on Monday to confirm Steve Pearce, a former oilman and congressman from New Mexico, to lead the Bureau of Land Management.

• Pearce was one of 49 nominees for federal positions that were confirmed in one Senate bloc vote of 46-43.

• The BLM, a division of the Interior Department, manages more than a tenth of the nation’s surface area.

• Pearce is the former owner of an oilfield services company and supports President Donald Trump’s goal to increase fossil fuel development on public lands.

• Democrats and conservation groups opposed Pearce’s nomination in part because he has advocated for sales of federal lands to pay down the deficit.

• Oil and gas trade group Western Energy Alliance praised Pearce’s confirmation, calling him a champion of multiple uses of public lands, including oil and gas drilling and protecting landscapes.

(Reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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CRESTWOOD, Ky. (AP) — Republican voters in northern Kentucky will choose between U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie and challenger Ed Gallrein in Tuesday’s House primary, another test of President Donald Trump’s power over his party after he handpicked Gallrein to take on the incumbent.

The primary race turned white hot in the final stretch. Massie brought in a phalanx of other Republicans, including Rep. Lauren Boebert, in an attempt to show voters that they could support both him and Trump. Trump ratcheted up his social media attacks on Massie, calling him “an obstructionist and a fool,” and Gallrein shared a stage with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday.

Trump has tightened his grip on the Republican Party in his second term, successfully purging those who deviate from his agenda, but Massie is one of the last and most outspoken holdouts. A Massie defeat on Tuesday would serve as one of the most powerful demonstrations yet of Trump’s influence over Republican voters.

The matchup between the congressman, who has been in office since 2012, and a first time candidate running on his loyalty to Trump has become the most expensive U.S. House primary in history.

Massie challenged the president last year to release the Jeffrey Epstein files, which became a political drag for the White House. He has also criticized the war in Iran and refused to vote for Trump’s signature tax legislation over concerns that it would increase the national debt.

Trump visited Kentucky to boost Gallrein in March. The president has had a string of success defeating dissenters in his party, pushing to oust Sen. Bill Cassidy in Louisiana and several Indiana state senators who defied him on redistricting.

The winner of Tuesday’s primary is expected to take the general election in the deeply red 4th Congressional District, which stretches along the state’s northernmost border.

Republicans statewide will also choose their nominee to replace Mitch McConnell, the longtime U.S. Senate leader, in a contest that represents a generational changing of the guard for the party. Rep. Andy Barr, endorsed by Trump, faces Daniel Cameron, a former state attorney general.

Massie’s challenge is to win over voters who generally think favorably of Trump, the same man telling them to vote for Gallrein. It’s not the first Republican primary Trump has tried to sway, but Massie’s overt rebelliousness has been a particular challenge to the president.

Gallrein, a retired U.S. Navy SEAL, embraced the role Trump gave him, focusing his pitch to voters on his personal history and unwavering loyalty to the president. Massie, he argued, betrayed Trump and the party.

Hegseth made a visit to the district Monday to boost Gallrein and lambast Massie, a break from tradition that came while the nation is at war. Hegseth said he was speaking “as a private citizen.”

Some voters were already fed up with Massie bucking the party.

George Scherzer, who lives in the small town of Crestwood, Kentucky, supported Massie in past elections but didn’t like the congressman’s lack of support on some of the president’s agenda, including last year’s tax and spending bill, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill.

“Some of his votes just did not make sense to me,” he said.

Massie has argued that voters do not have to choose between Trump and him, noting that he voted with his party the vast majority of the time. As for the remainder, he said those were on proposals that violated his America First principles such as adding to the national debt and getting into military entanglements, such as the war with Iran.

Massie has voted against U.S. aid to Israel and has faced accusations of antisemitism. He has denied the charges, arguing he’s generally against all foreign aid. But the race has drawn in millions of dollars against him from pro-Israel interest groups, including from the Republican Jewish Coalition Victory Fund.

That’s become a stump topic for Massie, who says the attempt to oust him is to send a warning to other lawmakers who oppose the president or aid to Israel.

In a pitch to Kentucky Republicans, Boebert posted photos both of her with Massie and with Trump on X, and wrote, “I support both of these men.” Replying to Boebert’s message on X, Massie said, “she likes both Trump and me! Yes it’s possible!!”

Trump lashed out at Boebert on Truth Social, asking for a Republican to challenge her even though the filing deadline in her home state of Colorado has already passed. “Anybody that dumb deserves a good Primary fight!” he wrote.

Barr and Cameron have tiptoed around their relationship with McConnell, who they previously worked under.

McConnell criticized Trump over the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and more recently voted against some of his Cabinet picks. He is stepping down after he becoming the longest serving Senate leader in American history, coinciding with a transformation of the party under Trump.

Many Republicans, while admiring McConnell’s achievements, see him as out of step with the Make America Great Again and America First movements spawned by Trump. Both Barr and Cameron have taken note, and while ingratiating themselves to the president have put some distance between themselves and McConnell.

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PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon voters are facing a familiar theme on their primary ballot Tuesday — well-financed Democratic incumbents looking to slide past little-known challengers while Republicans attempt to nominate candidates who could put up a fight in November in a heavily blue state.

Much of the Election Day drama will center less on candidate races and more on a referendum seeking to repeal a bill passed last fall by the Democratic-controlled Legislature that raised the state gas tax and hiked a series of fees.

The legislation was Democrats’ answer to help Oregon’s transportation budget as the state projects a decline in gas tax revenue from the shift to more fuel-efficient, electric and hybrid vehicles. The gas tax is the largest funding source for fixing roads and upgrading highways.

The referendum, known as Measure 120, lands on the ballot as the cost of gas is spiking nationwide from the war in Iran. The state’s Democratic governor, Tina Kotek, and other lawmakers from her party have acknowledged it will be tough for the ballot measure to pass. A yes vote means voters approve of the gas tax increase while a no vote means they reject it.

“It’s going to lose, so we might as well get on to the work of finding alternatives,” said Democratic state Rep. Paul Evans, anticipating that voters will reject the gas tax increase. “It has been a frustrating year.”

Republicans began circulating a petition to repeal the tax and fee increases soon after Kotek signed the legislation. It didn’t take them long to gather more than three times the number of signatures required to place the measure on the ballot.

With the referendum going before voters at a time when gas prices are skyrocketing, Republicans are trying to turn the tables on national Democrats’ messaging about affordability and lowering the cost of living during this year’s midterm elections.

“Oregonians are paying more today and not getting more in return,” said Republican state Sen. Bruce Starr, who helped lead the referendum campaign. “So are they going to, at the polls, vote to increase the price of gas another six cents? I doubt it.”

The Democrats’ transportation funding bill raised the state gas tax from 40 cents a gallon to 46 cents a gallon while also boosting a payroll tax for transit projects and vehicle registration and title fees. At a Portland gas station recently, some voters said they were sympathetic to the need to raise money for road upkeep while others said a tax increase was just too much to swallow.

“At a time when everything is more costly … nobody wants to pay more for anything,” said Josh Hansen, 39.

Kotek and other Democrats have linked the rise in gas prices to President Donald Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran, yet the party has not organized efforts to support the gas tax increase on the ballot. If the tax and fee increases pass, they would take effect 30 days after approval by voters.

Trump, for his part, recently said he will move to suspend the federal gas tax of 18 cents a gallon, which would need to be approved by Congress.

Kotek is running in the Democratic primary for governor as she seeks reelection. While she faces nine primary opponents, they have reported raising little to no money and don’t have experience in elected office.

Republicans have a crowded primary field of 14 candidates vying to run against her in November. They include state Sen. Christine Drazan, who lost to Kotek in the 2022 general election, and state Rep. Ed Diehl, who helped lead the gas tax referendum campaign.

The primary also includes Chris Dudley, a former NBA player whose career included time with the Portland Trail Blazers and who narrowly lost a previous bid for governor in 2010, and David Medina, a conservative influencer who was among those charged after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and pardoned by President Donald Trump last year. Medina faced charges that included obstruction of an official proceeding, a felony, and several misdemeanors that included destruction of government property and disorderly and disruptive conduct.

So far, Drazan and Dudley have reported raising the most money. Dudley notably received a $1 million contribution from Phil Knight, the billionaire co-founder of Nike, which is based in Oregon.

Whoever emerges faces a difficult path to the governor’s office. Democrats appear energized around the country this year, and Oregon hasn’t elected a Republican governor in over 40 years.

Voters also are casting ballots in primaries for U.S. Senate and the state’s six U.S. House seats, five of which are held by Democrats.

Oregon’s 5th Congressional District, considered its most competitive, was flipped by Republicans for the first time in decades in 2022 but reclaimed by Democrats in 2024. The district stretches from southern Portland across the Cascade Range to Bend.

The incumbent, Democratic Rep. Janelle Bynum, has more than $2 million on hand and is running against a primary opponent who has not reported raising any money.

Two candidates, a county commissioner and a political consultant, are running in the district’s Republican primary.

The other U.S. House seats are considered largely safe for the current incumbents.

While the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Jeff Merkley also is considered safe for him, seven Republicans are running in the primary to challenge him in the fall.

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